Hello guys. Welcome to another troubleshooting post dedicated to Samsung Galaxy S5 (#Samsung #GalaxyS5) owners out there who may be bugged by app-related problems. In this article, I addressed some very common issues including quick battery drain that is partly caused by a carrier’s bloatware.

Read on to know more of these problems and how to tackle them in case you encounter one. But if you’re looking for a solution to a different problem, browse the troubleshooting page we setup for the Galaxy S5 as we list down every problem we address each week. Or, you may contact us directly to get help by filling up this questionnaire.

AT&T bloatware use up battery, makes phone hot

Problem: Ever since I upgraded my Samsung Galaxy S5 to Android 5.0 my phone has had a problem with a task that synchronizes the AT&T address book. In one day it ran constantly for over 12 hours. The phone gets super hot. This task uses the 4G network and a massive amount of battery power. The only way to stop this task named ‘Synchronize’ is to force stop it. If I restart the phone the task restarts and the problem of the constant AT&T address book syncing returns. If I restart the phone I have to force stop the task. I don’t use the AT&T address book so it must be included with the phone for some reason along with a lot of other unused apps that can’t be deleted. Email me if more info is needed. Thanks, Charlie.

Suggestion: This is one of the reasons why a lot of people are willing to take the risk and root their phones just to get rid of bloatware their service providers added. The thing is, services like this cannot be uninstalled and can only be temporarily disabled. So, that’s your only option to stop it from synchronizing in the background and using up the battery. Even if you call AT&T and ask to remove this app, your request will never be granted. But the best thing to do about it is to let the app do its things until it’s done.

WhatsApp photos deleted from Galaxy S5

Problem: I connected my S5 to my Lenovo IdeaPad Y510P laptop using a USB 3.0 cable in order to backup my whatsapp received photos.

Once connected, Windows (Windows 8.1 is installed) did its things to recognise my phone.

After recognising my phone, I navigated through to my “Phone” internal storage to the whatsapp Media folder->Whatsapp Images. When I got there, all my received photos from all my whatsapp chats were gone. As in completely deleted from phone. This equates to approximately 600 MB or over 1500 photos.

Before I decided to backup my whatsapp received photos, I had my 3TB WD My Book Essential external hard drive connected to my laptop. I was backing up files from my laptop to my external hard drive. And this is all I did before connecting my phone to my laptop.

Please, please, please help me explain what has happened here and is there a way I can recover all of the, apparent, lost photos off my phone. Patiently waiting. — Hugo

Troubleshooting: In this case, disconnect the phone from your laptop and check through the stock file manager to see if those photos are still in your phone. If they are, then you can reconnect your phone to your computer and copy them, however, if they’re not in the directory where they were saved, then something must have happened while you were trying to get the phone get recognized by the laptop.

Try to check if the phone has been factory reset or not. There have already been a lot of reports from Android users complaining that their phones have been mysteriously reset. If it was reset, then there’s not much we can do about those photos especially if they haven’t been backed up in the cloud.

Now, upon checking through the file manager and the photos are nowhere to be found, then there’s a chance they’ve been deleted and it is almost impossible to recover them, although there are some data recovery software that are for sale online. You might want to try one of them if those photos are worth more than a few dollars.

Galaxy S5 freezes and “glitchy”

Problem: My phone always freezes and it is super glitchy. I always restart my phone but it doesn’t seem to stop the glichyness. What can I do to stop this . Every app I use is glitchy my messaging app as well as the ones I installed. I’ve already updated the software as well but it doesn’t seem to work.

Troubleshooting: The term “glitch” has a vague meaning especially in the tech world. So, it could have been more helpful to us to determine what the problem is if you tried to describe the problem instead of just using the term.

We do, however, understand that the phone is freezing but we don’t have any idea how frequent or for how long does the phone becomes unresponsive. Equally important is the information on when the problem started. If it began after an update, then wiping the cache partition may fix it but for any other reasons, a master reset is required.

Wipe Cache Partition

Turn off the device.

Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and Power key.

When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.

When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.

Press the Volume Down key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’

Press the Power key to select.

When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.

Press the Power key to restart the device.

Master Reset

Turn off the device.

Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and Power key.

When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.

When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.

Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’

Press Power button to select.

Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.

Press Power button to select and start the master reset.

When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.

Press the Power key to restart the device.

Can’t reinstall SnapChat on Galaxy S5

Problem: Logged me out automatically. After using snapchat for a few days now. Changed my password to get back in and wouldn’t let me log back in. So I restarted my phone still wouldn’t let me. So I deleted the app now it won’t let me install the app at all.

Troubleshooting: If you were unable to reinstall the app, you should be getting an error message or a number. The thing is it could be a problem with the app itself or the Google Play Store.

The Galaxy S5, regardless of the version of Android that runs on it, has always been compatible with SnapChat and the developers of the app keep updating it to make sure it runs smoothly on almost all Android devices. So, I’m sure it’s not about compatibility.

Since there’s not much information provided, we are forced to assume things. If there was an update with any of the Google apps, try to Uninstall the updates for the Play Store. Just go to the application manager and find the Play Store; you should see the Uninstall updates button.

For any other case, try booting the phone in safe mode and try to download the app while in that state. Here’s how you boot your phone in safe mode…

Turn off the phone completely.

Press and hold the Power key and the Volume Down key.

When the phone starts to boot, release the Power key but continue holding the Vol Down key until the phone finished restarting.

Safe mode will be displayed at the lower left corner; you may release the Volume Down key now.

Unable to login on SnapChat with Galaxy S5

Problem: It will not let me login on this new device. It keeps saying try again and won’t even send a verification code. I have reinstalled the app multiple times and restarted my phone as well and it has not worked. I am able to login on all other devices I have but not this one.

Suggestion: Verification code may arrive late and we don’t have control over it, we just have to wait. But just make sure you entered your correct phone number and if all else fails, it’s better you contact the developer and report the problem.

The app has always been compatible with Galaxy S5 so I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t login. I don’t know if it’s always been like this with you but if the app has been working fine before, I suggest you master reset your phone and try to install SnapChat before anything else on your phone to see if it works that way.

Spotify closes immediately after opening

Problem: Every time I try to open Spotify, if opens for about 3 seconds and then it closes. I’ve tried clearing the cache.

Troubleshooting: You have to options here either to update the app or uninstall and download a fresh copy from the Google Play Store. But before doing any of the two, try to clear the data as well:

From any Home screen, tap Apps.

Tap Settings.

Scroll to ‘APPLICATIONS,’ then tap Application manager.

Swipe right to the ALL screen.

Tap Spotify.

Tap Clear Data, OK.

Many apps running in the background

Problem: I run Battery Doctor and it finds 30 to 48 running apps , most that I didn’t open. 20 minutes later they are still there. What am I doing wrong? And thanks.

Answer: You’re not doing anything wrong it’s just that the apps you’re seeing are probably pre-installed ones or core services that run whenever the phone boots up. They’re necessary to make the phone run smoother with all its functions. If the phone comes via a carrier or service provider, there could be other apps added by your carrier to run alongside pre-installed ones.

There’s nothing you can do about those apps and we suggest you leave them running to make sure the phone will work accordingly.

“Unfortunately, Music has stopped” error

Problem: When I click over music player to play music, it says “unfortunately music has stopped” with the only option “Ok”. So what shall I do?

Troubleshooting: Since you never mentioned any significant events that may have resulted to this error, I assume it’s just one of the minor cases of app crashes. So, clearing the cache and data will fix it.

From any Home screen, tap Apps.

Tap Settings.

Scroll to ‘APPLICATIONS,’ then tap Application manager.

Swipe right to the ALL screen.

Tap Music.

Tap Clear Cache.

Tap Clear Data, OK.

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